1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to an oil recovery method, and more specifically to a method for recovering viscous oil from subterranean, viscous oil-containing formations including tar sand deposits. Still more specifically, this method employs a cyclical injection-production program in which first a mixture of solvent and steam are injected followed by fluid production.
2. Background of the Invention
Many oil reservoirs have been discovered which contain vast quantities of oil, but little or no oil has been recovered from many of them because the oil present in the reservoir is so viscous that it is essentially immobile at reservoir conditions, and little or no petroleum flow will occur into a well drilled into the formation even if a natural or artifically induced pressure differential exists between the formation and the well. Some form of supplemental oil recovery must be applied to these formations which decrease the viscosity of the oil sufficiently that it will flow or can be dispersed through the formation to a production well and therethrough to the surface of the earth. Thermal recovery techniques are quite suitable for viscous oil formations, and steam flooding is the most successful thermal oil recovery technique yet employed commercially.
Steam may be utilized for thermal stimulation for viscous oil production by means of a steam drive or steam throughput process, in which steam is injected onto the formation on a more or less continuous basis by means of an injection well and oil is recovered from the formation from a spaced-apart production well.
Coinjection of solvents with steam into a heavy oil reservoir can enhance oil recovery by the solvent mixing with the oil and reducing its viscosity. The use of a solvent comingled with steam during a thermal recovery process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,170 to Redford and U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,503 to Hall.
Applicants' copending application Ser. Nos. 553,923 and 553,924, filed Nov. 21, 1983, respectively, disclose oil recovery processes wherein mixtures of steam and solvent are injected into the formation to maximize solvent efficiency.